


Snowfall

by WindyCanyon



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Autism, Hinata is a ray of sunshine, I don't know what I'm doing, M/M, a confused ray of sunshine, artist!kageyama, lonely kagaeyama, writer!hinata
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-08
Updated: 2017-12-08
Packaged: 2019-02-12 07:26:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,042
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12954294
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WindyCanyon/pseuds/WindyCanyon
Summary: Tobio lets Oikawa come and go as he pleases, always taking him back when the man shows up in apartment time and time again. He lets himself grow numb to the pain of being discarded and left behind, grow numb to his life shattering every time Oikawa walks out the door. He lets the cycle repeat until it finally too much, until he finally puts a stop to it.Hinata was just suppose to fill the hole Oikawa made from himself, something to keep the other man out of his life. Tobio expected nothing else from him. Yet, against his will, Hinata forced himself into his life, overfill the space meant for his and making his own. Tobio didn't expect anything, but he certainly got more than he bargained for.





	Snowfall

"Tobio."

No "chan" followed his name. He didn't bother to turn his head from the paper, his hand drawing a sweeping line in ink. Honestly, Tobio expected this days ago. He wonder what took Oikawa so long. Tooru only wasted both their time by prolonging the inevitable.

"I have to go..."

Of course. Oikawa always started with the same line, though he probably never said a more honest thing in his life. Tobio gave nothing in reply and continued to stare at the paper. He didn't have much to say at this point.

"Hey! Are you even listening?" Oikawa wasn't use to being ignored, especially when he started the conversation like that. He reached out to grab Tobio's hand and stop its motion.

He locked eyes with the other man, and Oikawa's hand froze, hovering over his skin. Tobio let his eyes slides back to the paper and he let out a breath. The steadiness of his own voice surprised him as he spoke, "Don't come back this time."

Oikawa stared at him, more shocked by his words than Tobio. A strange sense of satisfaction came to him from seeing the other man speechless for once. Then, came the tears. Tobio didn't feel especially bad for causing them. He was tired and detached from a scene he'd witnessed too many times. On some level, he even felt happy Oikawa mustered tears for him. He owed Tobio that much after all.

"What are you saying, Tobio-chan?" Oikawa hiccuped. Despite being handsome, Oikawa looked terrible when he cried. His face turned an unsightly red and contorted into an ugly shape.

"You heard me." Again, he surprised himself with how his voice sounded. It rang out like a bell without a clapper, sad and empty. "Don't act like you're a victim. You came here to break up again."

Oikawa fell silent. Tobio seemed to be on a roll today. He couldn't remember if he'd ever struck Oikawa speechless twice in one day.

The weight of the situation dragged at him, and Tobio stood from his chair. "I'm going out. When I come back, I expect your stuff gone and your key under the mat."

He shuffled over to the door and took his coat from the peg. It was cold out and promised snow like the day before. Tobio wrapped a scarf around his neck and shoved on his gloves. He put on his boots last and wished he thought of putting them on before his gloves. He ended up pulling off one glove completely to finish the task. The entire process was painfully slow and gave Oikawa the time to find his voice.

"Is this goodbye?" Oikawa's voice held a bitter edge, hoping to strike a nerve. Maybe concealed barbs hurt him before, but this wasn't the past.

This time, he was the one with a foot out the door.

Tobio closed his eyes, feeling the chill in the hall. The apartment's warmer air wrapped around him from behind, trying to coax him back into its warmth and into Oikawa's arms, but it didn't touch the coldness in his chest. Tobio glanced back over his shoulder. Tears glimmered in Oikawa's eyes and anger sharpened his face into someone else.

"We are long past goodbyes." He only saw Oikawa's eyes widen for a second before Tobio forced himself away and walked out the door.

As the weather man predicted, gentle flurries drifted from the sky and the world around him turned a blinding white. Tobio walked out into it, his mind as blank as the snow. His feet crunched through yesterday's snowfall. No one cleaned this area of sidewalk yet. He trudged through it without complaint when he normally felt passing annoyance.

He didn't know how far he walked. Everything looked the same when a layer of white covered it. The flurries turned to actual flakes, settling on his head and shoulders like a blanket. They gathered on his scarf and melted down his neck. Tobio wished he thought to bring a hat, or an umbrella. He kept walking.

Eventually, he came to a bench and brushed it off. Sitting stilled his mind and Tobio realized he was holding his breath. He let out the breath with a cloudy puff of air and waited for the crash when his entire mind crumbled and fell at his feet. So far, nothing. Not even a crack.

Tobio leaned back and gazed up at the sky, still holding his breath. Snowflakes fell on his face and gathered on his eyelashes, but he didn't feel the cold. He didn't feel anything, actually.

"Hey, um... Are you okay?"

The voice didn't register until after a few moments. Tobio turned his gaze from the sky and looked at the man standing in front of him. It took him a moment to find the stranger's face between the puffy hat he wore and the large, yellow scarf. He couldn't see much, except a pair of bright brown eyes staring at him. Tobio glanced down at the rest of his body. Judging from his height, he was only a kid. A heavy jacket hid any other defining features.

"Do I look bad?" If a stranger was asking, then he must.

"Well, no..." The stranger shifted from foot to foot, trying to conserve warmth. "You look cold."

Tobio glanced down at his hands and realized he couldn't feel them. He was cold. "Oh."

"You haven't moved for awhile, so I was wondering if you were alright." The boy blinked at him.

"I see." Tobio's eyes slide from the other's and gazed to the side.

"Are you alright?" The boy hesitated to ask.

Tobio swallowed and worked to find his words. He didn't know how to answer the boy. After a moment of pondering, he remembered the stranger waiting for an answer. He settled for the most obvious one. "I'm cold."

"Well, no surprise there!" said the man, surprisingly cheery. "You've been sitting here for more than an hour."

"I'll leave then." Tobio stood. Snow fell off his shoulders.

"Ah! You should warm up after sitting that long."

"I'm fine." He walked away, only to stop short. Somehow, the boy stood in front of him again, much closer and much shorter than before.

"My home isn't far. I'm make you some tea." Those brown eyes lifted in a way that suit them well, staring up at him warmly.

Tobio only blinked and let his eyes drift off to the side. He didn't feel quite himself enough to manage a frown or a reply. He settled for silence.

"I really don't think you should be out. Just stay for some tea." The boy snagged his arm and pulled him a different direction.

The cold may have frozen Tobio's brain a bit, but the contact thawed it immediately. He jerked away from the other harder than he meant to, and a glare found his face. The boy stepped away from him quickly, stunned by his reaction. They stared at each other until the glare melted off his face, and he looked away. The boy touched him only out of kindness, and Tobio knew that. It still startled him.

Without turning back to look at the boy, he glanced at the nearby apartment buildings. "Do you live over there?"

The boy nodded, only to realized Tobio couldn't see it. "Yes..."

"Alright." He let the boy lead him towards the buildings. It's not like he could go home yet, anyway.

...

He hadn't given the man a second glance when he passed him on the way to the store. However, when he was still there, still in the same position, an hour later, he began to wonder.

Once he had his attention, Shouyou knew his interest wouldn't just go away. He bundled up and stumbled out toward black lump slowly being covered by snow.

The man didn't notice his approach, though the crunch of snow was more than enough to give him away. He just continued to sit there and stare at the sky. It was such a solemn image, it burned into his mind and made his heart ache. The man looked like he was waiting for the sky to reach down and take him away. Instead, it buried him with snow and made him as much part of the snowscape as the drifts themselves. Shouyou couldn't leave him there when he looked so...cold.

He called out automatically, without giving himself time to think. It took a long time for the man to register his call and lower his head. It took even longer for him to answer. All the while, Shouyou stared at the snow caught on his eyelashes and in the dark ebony of his hair.

Even as the man looked at him and spoke, his eyes didn't focus on him. They slide to the ground, only to rise again as if remembering where to look. He face stayed so empty and tired, his lips pale from the cold. His eyes were a stormy ocean, waves clashing and lifting, while his pupils merely vulnerable boats among the darkened blue. Shouyou wondered if there was more to that lost look than just the temperature.

Somewhere in his core, he felt the man losing a fight with world or with himself; he didn't know. Urgency drove his actions, anything to help the man in front of him. His hand was on the man's arm and pulling, as if to pull him back from whatever brink he sat on--save him from the ocean he was drowning in.

The man, who reacted so slow before, immediately jerked away. Shouyou opened his mouth to apologize, but the words froze on his tongue. A dark glare held him in place, much like the growl of a cornered dog. He stopped breathing, paralyzed by the eyes that seemed to focus on his for the first time. After a moment, the glare fell from his face, his eyes lowered once again, and regret replaced it. The expression was so pitiful, Shouyou had to stop himself from reaching out again.

They ended up in front of his door, both shivering. Shouyou fumbled with the key in his gloved hand, glancing at the other nervously. "It's not very big, but it's warm."

The man didn't speak, and he finally got the door open. Shouyou stumbled in, already unzipping his jacket. The man was right behind him, though much slower. He got out of all his layers by the time the other unwrapped his scarf.

"I'll get started on the tea! Please, sit down." Shouyou moved further into the apartment and into the kitchenette connected to the living room. He set the water to boil and got down two cups.

The man shuffling behind him. Shouyou turned and watched the man settle himself at the table. He bit his lip to keep from chuckling as the man tried to find a comfortable way to position his too long legs under the table. The snow in his hair melted and soaked the already limp, black strands. Shouyou grabbed a towel and made his way over to the other.

Dark eyes looked at the offered towel and snapped to his face. They cut into him like daggers--sharper than anything Shouyou had seen. Droplets of melted snow still clung to his cheeks and softened his gaze enough for Shouyou to breathe. He shook the towel a little and said, "For your hair. It's soaked."

The man nodded and took it without a word. Shouyou offered a smile in return and bound back to the kitchen. The water wasn't boiling, but it wouldn't be much longer.

Shouyou went about pouring the water over tea leaves once it was ready. The man stayed silent throughout the process, but he felt those sharp eyes on his back. Whenever he turned, the man stared at the table.

"Do you feel better?" Shouyou set a cup in front of the man and sat across from him. He didn't really understand the silence, but the man hadn't seemed one of many words in the first place.

"Yes, I... Thanks." The man kept his eyes down and wrapped his hands around the warm cup, engulfing the cup between them. Everything about this stranger seemed too big for his little apartment.

Shouyou smiled at the thanks and nodded. Before, Shouyou thought the cold kept him silent. Now, it just seemed the other man was just awkward.

"I'm glad you're alright," said Shouyou in an attempt to keep the conversation going.

Instead of answering, the man only nodded and sipped at his tea.

"It's an odd time to take a walk through the park."

The man's eyes moved from the table and cast off to the side.

"Not many people come to this park, but I like it. Big drifts build up in the winter and make the best piles to jump into." Shouyou rambled through his fondness for the park and onto his fondness of snow.

Not long after he really got going the fun of winter, the man fixed him with a frown, not quite meeting his eye. "Can you be quiet?"

Shouyou snapped his mouth shut, blinking at the harshness in the other man's voice.

Immediately, the man looked away again. His brows knitted into a softer frown, more uncertain than angry. "I just...want some quiet."

"Okay." He looked at his tea and sipped it.

Silence weighed on them and Shouyou squirmed under it. The other man didn't seem any better off with the quiet, despite having asked for it. It grew too much for him and he found an excuse to get up in his empty cup. He noticed the other man's cup empty and reached to take it. Their fingers bumped before the man jerked his hands away.

He mumbled a quick apology and went to refill the cups. His fingers tingled from the quick contact; the man's hand was still cold. Shouyou made it back quickly with the tea and set it carefully by the man.

"If you don't mind, I'm going to do some cleaning." The man began to rise, but Shouyou waved his hands. "You don't have to leave. I'd just feel like a bad host if I started washing dishes without saying anything."

The man's brows knitted again and for a moment, it looked like he would leave. He battled with the idea until with a sigh, he sat back down.

That surprised Shouyou more than anything. The man seemed keen on not saying a word. He honestly thought the stranger would disappear as soon as he was through with tea.

"Well, feel free to take a nap or something." Shouyou hastily stood and retreated to the kitchen. There was a stack of dishes waiting for him.

...

He stared at the small man's back, wondering how it ended up like this. Tobio couldn't wrap his head around why this man allowed him into his home. At first, Tobio thought he was just some nice kid and as soon as his mother saw him, he'd be out in the cold again. Looking at the apartment, it was obvious that wasn't the case. He didn't even look like a kid.

The bright eyes that peered at him before belonged to an equally bright face. He rivaled Oikawa in the number of smiles he gave and, on brightness level alone, Oikawa was no match. However, unlike Oikawa, there was no insincerity to his smiles. It made Tobio uneasy to have them directed at him. He couldn't tell what the other man thought behind a smile like that. At least with Oikawa, he knew nothing good hid behind his smile.

Tobio scowled at the cheap wood table and scanned the walls. There were pictures everywhere. Most of them were held a young girl who looked like the man. She had the same orange hair as him and brightness in her smile. There was one picture of the two of them smiling. Tobio couldn't look at it look without his head hurting.

Some more glancing around revealed more about the man. A volleyball sat in the corner with a gym bag. An unopened video game. Notebooks spread out on a desk with a running laptop. The waste basket was filled with crumpled paper. Shoved under the desk, a pile of what suspiciously looked like bills.

Tobio tore his eyes away from the room and stared into his tea for a long time. He couldn't decided if those hints into the man's life mattered to him, or if they mattered at all.

The man finished up his task and came back to sit down, closer than before. Tobio glanced at him and away again. A large part of him wanted to repay this strange man for his kindness, but his own awkwardness kept him from doing so. He didn't even know how to begin.

"How are you feeling now?" The man's smile brushed over him like warm sunlight. He looked away from the brightness for fear of getting burned.

"Better," he said. Tobio finished off his tea and stood. "I should go."

"Are you sure? It's still snowing." The man hovered at his side, trailing after him as he walked to the door.

He nodded and put on each layer. Tobio was reluctant to leave the warmth, but he grew more uncomfortable the longer he stayed. It wasn't really the man who made him tense. The man actually made him want to relax, and that made him uneasy.

With one hand on the door knob, he finally paused and looked back.

The man lingered the in entry hall, watching him. His face troubled by his abrupt departure.

"I don't know your name," said Tobio.

A smile broke out like the sun on a cloudy day. "I'm Hinata Shouyou."

He nodded. "Kageyama Tobio. Thank you for your hospitality."

Tobio stepped out into the cold. His hair was still wet from the snow and the wind only made it colder. He hurried out into the weather and snow. The apartment wasn't far, fortunately, and he only lost some of his warmth before making it back to his apartment. Before opening it, he checked under the mat to make sure the key was there.

It was.


End file.
